Hindustan Unilever Managing Director Nitin Paranjpe says the company is looking at every possible lever in its control to meet the challenges of severe commodity price pressures. In this interview with Shyamal Majumdar and Viveat Susan Pinto, he also talks about why downtrading, if any, will be temporary as the secular trend will continue to be premiumisation.

Q&A: Nitin Paranjpe, MD, Hindustan Unilever

Business Standard

Anand Mahindra does not put the acquisition of the South Korean automaker Ssangyong as the next big milestone for his group of companies after the launch of the Scorpio, Mahindra&rsquo;s top-selling sports utility vehicle built with homegrown technology. Instead, the 55-year-old Vice-chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra &amp; Mahindra confers the title on the new corporate branding that the group is quietly undertaking, under the mantra Rise.

Rising to the occasion

Does your team know where it is heading? Have you defined and communicated the future you want? Managers often say they are carried away by events. They don&rsquo;t make decisions in conscious pursuit of some longer-term goal. In this extract from the book Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader, authors Linda A Hill and Kent Lineback discuss why it is important for a team to prepare for future and how to go about it.

Why must you worry about the future?

Growing job opportunities ensure good placements for even second- and third-rung business schools.

B-schools make hay while the sun shines

Over more than a decade since the category came into its own, many brands have come to spell life insurance only as i-n-v-e-s-t-m-e-n-t.

Agent of change

This year, University of Chicago will join the ranks of a dozen international universities which have firmed up plans to set up centres in India. Sunil Kumar, who took over as the dean of Chicago Booth School of Business last month, tells Kalpana Pathak how the school plans to leverage the India centre and the school's alumni base in India.

Q&A: Sunil Kumar, Dean, Chicago Booth School of Business

If it&rsquo;s light, it&rsquo;s right. Food companies are busy keeping up pace with the growing preference for healthy, lean, low fat, low calorie, less filling or lite food.

Let there be lite

Mercedes-Benz recently unveiled two new variants of the Maybach &mdash; Maybach 57S and Maybach 62 &mdash; sporting price tags of Rs 4.85 crore and Rs 5.1 crore (ex-showroom Delhi) respectively. Though the German luxury brand has sold five units since launch in 2004-05, the automaker believes the time is right for a renewed push.

Mercedes-Benz: Back for more

Leading brands are taking promotions to a new level for the World Cup and IPL.

On the front foot

Emirates Airline, the national airline of Dubai and the largest airline in the West Asia, has launched its pre-summer awareness campaign in India. Dubbed &ldquo;Guess where, and Emirates will fly you there!&rdquo;, the campaign comprises eight television commercials and 15 print ads, of which four TVCs have already gone on air and seven print ads have been issued. The campaign has been split into two stages, each conveying a distinct message.

Emirates Airline: Discovering destinations

THE MAN WHO SOLD AMERICA
Authors: Jeffrey L Cruikshank &amp; Arthur W Schultz 
Publisher: Harvard Business Press 
Price: Rs 995
ISBN: 9781591393085.
ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP - 2011 OFFICIAL GUIDE
Publisher: Living media Ltd
Price: Rs 200
ISBN: 9786077636229.
OPEN SOURCE LEADER
Author: Sangeeth Varghese
Publisher: Penguin Books India 
Price: Rs 499
ISBN: 9780670083268.
THE ART OF CHOOSING
Author: Sheena Iyengar
Publisher: Little, Brown
Price: Rs 499
ISBN: 9781408702949.
INDIA: 150 YEARS IN PHOTOGRAPHS
Author: S Prasannarajan
Publisher: Roli 
Price: Rs 3,500
ISBN: 9788174368119.
THE BIG SHORT
Author: Lewis Michael
Publisher: Penguin 
Price: Rs 599
ISBN: 9781846142574.
CONNECT THE DOTS
Author: Rashmi Bansal
Publisher: Eklavya Education Foundation 
Price: Rs 150
ISBN: 9788190453028.
MANAGERS WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Author: TV Rao
Publisher: Random House India
Price: Rs 299
ISBN: 9788184001372.
BUSINESS AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Author: Anurag K

The top 10 business bestsellers

One way of looking at the notification on admission and fees of business management institutions put out by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) last December is to view the sector regulator doing its job of protecting consumers&rsquo; interests (i.e. prospective students) from venal institutions that are cashing in on the growing demand for a B-school education. But, in addressing a problem that it has been responsible for, in no small measure, AICTE has overreached itself. So, it is not surprising that the issue now finds itself in court. Of the eight rules that AICTE has set out, two can be considered somewhat logical. The first stipulates that the admission for all management education courses cannot start before March 31. Most mainline B-schools begin the admission process in January, two months after the Common Entrance Test (CAT), one of the widely-used admission tests, in October, but others start later, depending on the timing of other entrance tests.

Off course

India has a population of 360 million in the 5-19 year age group. Out of this, only 230 million are enrolled in schools.

KIT:  Schools in India

    Which experience during the 26/11 attack in Mumbai has been made into a case study at Harvard Business School? Also name the management concept being related to it.

The Strategist Quiz (#189)

    In cricket it&rsquo;s a term used to describe a delivery that reaches the batsman without bouncing on the pitch.

Answers to last week&#39s quiz (#188)

Online streaming of the ongoing cricket World Cup is proving to be a hit among netizens, with the website of the broadcaster ESPN Star Sports (ESS) registering over 1 million viewers in the India-Bangladesh opening match.

Online streaming of WC matches big hit, brands find good value

Press Trust of India

Faced with a big shortage of skilled workforce, the Rs 15,000-crore re-inforced plastics&rsquo; composites industry has started preparing to train fresh graduates through professional business schools.

A job after college? Try reinforced plastics

Europe&rsquo;s largest car maker Volkswagen AG is gearing up to launch the latest version of the Passat sedan by the end of March or early April, in an effort to capitalise on the growing demand for premium executive sedans in India.

VW seeks to turn the tide with Passat sedan

A wannabe student-politician enters the college canteen with his followers only to find it empty. The mystery is solved soon: all the students now hang out in KFC.

Easy on the purse

In a major blow to the country&rsquo;s technical education regulator, the Bombay High Court is understood to have given a stay order on the recent guidelines issued by it, which, among other things, proposed to regulate the fees and course curriculum of all the B-schools.

B-schools in Maharashtra get stay order against AICTE norms

The travel retail business caters to the traveling consumer and includes retail at airports, highways, railway stations, metro stations and ports.

Page 549 - News